Sunday, October 25, 2009

Not sure why, but this song came on and my mind went to this passage...

John 6:62. What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!63.The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64.Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." 66. From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
68. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 70. Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71. (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

“In many Bibles, all the words of Jesus are in red. There is nothing wrong with that. But something is wrong when Leftist Christians or so-called Christians want to mute the words of Paul and other writers and only follow Jesus' words. They call themselves "red-letter Christians."

It only gets worse in its lies from there.

Now what is the lie here? It is saying that they want to “mute the words of Paul”… They do not. They just believe that Jesus’ words are being overlooked…

Here is the story behind the “Red Letter Christians”. They can be accused or being “politically left wing” but to say they “mute the words of Paul” goes way off the map and to state such a thing is a lie and discredits Brannon Howes. This is the type of thing I come across all the time when worldly politics over-rides Christian “virtue” and becomes more important than loving your brothers and sister’s in Christ. Slanderers will not inherit the Kingdom of God… at least that is what Paul teaches… yet it is accepted by right wing Christians to do this without any accountability. I guess if The Red Letter Christians are Left wing politically for believing the words of Jesus, then Jesus was a total liberal. The Bible is to be taken as a whole. All authors were inspired by God… and Jesus’ words should not be ignored.

Truly what bothers me most is that some people support these ministries that see lying as a way to "protect" truth instead of holding them accountable for their lies.

Friday, October 16, 2009

There are some things I just can’t grasp. One thing that I just can’t grasp or might not agree with is Leron Shultzs’ idea that we cannot analogize God. I see his point to a degree, yet the Bible is full of “God is like a…” statements. Yet, God does not have a beak or wings and Jesus is not a literal lamb… and Peter as dense as he could be sometimes was not a literal rock. So if one takes analogies to their extreme results… they will fall very short. Though I do like his idea of God as “Being in relationship.”

Now, one area I have thought about since High School was the concept of opposites. I had a teacher that asked the question one time, “What is the opposite of love?” we all stated “hate” just like you probably just did. Yet, he pointed out that the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy or the lack of emotion.

The opposite of hate is not love, the opposite of sorrow is not joy but all being emotions, are opposite to apathy.

Now, I am not sure if that helps me or hurts me as far as theology.

Yet let’s look at something in scripture called the Higher Law of Love.

1 John 4:16b “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

God dwells in the emotion of love. He calls us to live in those attributes that are of love. Grace itself can be best understood as the emotion God has for us, or knowing that God loves us.

Many people are quick to state that we are to “obey God” or it’s variation, that we are to “obey God’s Law”. Yet miss that to obey as they teach is actually “works”. For example, if you read this article you will note the author quotes verses on “He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching” yet misses that we cannot be obedient, for if we could, then we could obey the Law and would not have needed Jesus to die on the cross for the author only has half the teaching here… which is dangerous if one claims to be a teacher to only give half the teaching that one might mislead others down “works” salvation instead of total dependency on Christ Jesus for salvation. Though Jesus states “He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching” we must recognize a few things…

Jesus is talking to Judas who had his own agenda. Jesus knew Judas would betray him, yet, still gave Judas all the chances to turn. Jesus is stating that Judas to be filled with the Spirit of Truth by the Father because Judas believes on Jesus. Yet, most importantly one must understand what it was that Jesus “commanded” us to be obedient to. Here is what the bible teaches as to what the commands we are to be obedient to.

1 John 3: 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.1 John 4:21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.Galatians 5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."2 John 1:6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Note that some seem to teach that we are still under the Mosaic law, while the bible teaches quite the opposite for Believers in Jesus.

Again there is more to obedience that so many miss, and that we as mere men, have no obedience in and of ourselves. Romans 5: 19 “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

Though many quickly accept that we have no righteousness except Jesus as well as holiness of our own outside of the Holiness of Christ all imputed to us, for some reason many still believe wrongly that they have the ability to be obedient on and in their own power, or worse that they are “helped” by the Holy Spirit to be obedient. Now, there is some merit to the last one, yet we must realize that yet we must keep it in the biblical perspective. In a book by Chuck Smith “Charisma Versus Charismania” Chuck gives an example of lifting a table. We are on one side while God is on the other side and we lift and God helps. That is a terrible example… sorry to be so blunt.
The truth is any “works” we do will be tainted, yet the works God does are always good and perfect. So, if God is helping us God is defeating His own good and perfect will. Yet, if we understand that God lifts the table and we may look like we are lifting it, we are to only give God the glory in what He is doing by lifting the table. We are to be no less dependant on God than Jesus was Himself. In His own words he states in John 5: 19 “Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Again if we look at Romans 5:19 we will notice that “through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners”. This many readily accept and have not issue with, yet, when we get to the second half many seem to balk at the very idea they cannot be obedient! They seem to hold to that our righteousness comes from our own obedience yet we read, “so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous”. It is from the obedience of the one man (Jesus) that we are made righteous. In Hebrews 5 we read, “8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.”

Jesus learned obedience Philippians 2: 5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Again we see that Jesus was obedient even unto death.

The only obedience we can give is the obedience to Love God and one another. Yet, even that is with the understanding that Love is not generated from us, but is a response to what God has already done. That God loved us first, 1 John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Since we have responded to the love of God, then we receive the Holy Spirit. God is love and if we have responded then God lives in us, (1 John 4:12)

Once one grasps that truth, then we can allow God to work in us and through us. The sign in that this is happening in us is how we treat others. God does not care if you “repent” to Him, if you have harmed someone, yet do nothing to bring reconciliation. If you do not have reconciliation in your heart, which is driven by the love of God, then whatever you do is really worthless no matter how good one can teach.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Almost daily I am asked for help in some for or another. I believe it is because of iggyROCKS! and other things I do on the web that draw people to me. Most often I can tell they are cons yet very often they are not. To give you an idea of the type of requests I receive here is a recent one. I left it unedited. I believe the way it is written shows a sense of urgency.

Dear Carlor , GOD is great that is understanding has no limits that HE is building HIS kingdom and saving the sufferings through you may GOD bless you. i am

lufafa from Uganda writing to you now and i hope that this will find you doing well,I am the pastor of revival faith christians centre in uganda seeking for your support in bibles to enable me do the work with out facing some problems in the community of our lord jesus christ.

i am also the Director of revival care ministries Uganda with 35 orphans and 25 widows

this cause came up due to AIDS which is decimates the social fabric of community,and leaves the whole spiritual edifice teetering at the brink of total collapse .the haed fact that this pandemic lacks cure leaves the infected and the affected people in the situation so hopeless that this hollowness rubs off onto ,and seeps progressively into the individual .

this physical hollowness can easily translate into spiritual needs ,ultimately bringing in question the use of their GOD to them .And because vspiritual satisfaction is part and parcel of the entity of humanity ,provision of humanitarian assistance without it is more like preparing for journey to the land of nowhere for as it written in jams e 1:27 pure and undefiled religion before GOD the father is that which cares for the widows and orphans in their distress ,As Christians ,we can only put claim to the fact that we are true believers ,only when we exhibit unqualified compassion to those in need

This is actually the source

be blessed

It breaks my heart on many levels. One level that hurts me personally is that sometimes I know what the letter will say before I open it. I am not saying I am some psychic; rather often the ones I do not want to open are the ones that God hits me hardest with. Now, I have nothing to give these people. I have done a shoe/clothes drive at my church and we sent about 5 boxes to one similar ministry. Yet, there is so much more that needs to be done. Often just sending bibles would help. Yet, there are other needs. Some organizations need money for schools and other things.

I am just one person. I see a need that I cannot meet. I am saddened and wonder what can be done. Yet, if these people are drawn to me, then just maybe those that have a stirring in their heart will be draw to me also to let me connect them with those who need help. That is my only plan an only prayer. Please pray and let God move in you. I promise to be open in all ways to your ideas. Please… help. I am looking at starting a non profit organization so if anyone knows how to walk me through this please contact me.

James 1: 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

iggy

* Lufafa is part of another organization and not related to Afayo thought what they do is similar. I am still checking into Lufafa to see what I can do to help.

This song has always amazed me. These are the same guys that brought us Hair of the Dog and other rockers... yet... they can see the clear hypocrisy in self righteousness. This is better than many sermons I have heard.

Holy Roller

Holy roller, lookin down
Where you think you know
All the answers
Arrogance and pride....are sin
Better look to your, own chances

Chorus:

Holy roller can you save your own soul
Can you save your own soul
Holy roller

Standin, up for jesus
Thats your thing
But youre standin on peoples hearts
Charity is a virtue
To be praised
Better get back on...jesus track

Chorus:

Holy roller, practice what you preach
Heaven, its still within your reach

Interesting to me is that many see the phrase “be perfect” and believe it is not possible when Jesus states, “be perfect” (Matt 5: 48. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.) At the time Jesus spoke it I think that it was laid out as a challenge for one to “try” to do under the Law, yet was not attainable until after Jesus died and rose again. If you couple that thought with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 he states:

“20. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21. that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Now in a sense we are not yet “Perfect”… as Paul states; Phil 3: 10. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11. and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Yet Hebrews also states: Hebrews 7:28. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Now go back and re-read the prayer of Jesus in John 17.. He is in the Father; the Father is in Jesus. Jesus is in us as He is in the Father… we are in Jesus as Jesus is in the Father.

When we come to new birth in Christ, we are “Baptized” into Christ (now please do not take that as getting wet… as the word “baptize” has more meaning that just getting dunked)

Gal 3:26. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27. for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Here as in other places “baptized” means “placed in or immersed” (to immerse something you need to place that “something” into the water.)

Now read this passage where “baptizes” is mentioned in Romans:

Romans 6: 1. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2. By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3. Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7. because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Notice when you start thinking of baptism as “placing something into” instead of dunking, that it sort of changes the meaning?

Now, we are place into Christ Jesus… we die to sin and live in Him. We then are “placed into” Jesus just as Adam was “placed into the Garden”…

Now there is not sin in Jesus so therefore if we are in Christ, and He has not sin, we have not sin!

In fact Paul states this of us: 2 Cor 5: 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is how we are made righteous and “perfect” in God’s eye… later we will be clothed in the imperishable… and raised incorruptible, but right now as we depend on Jesus totally we are being “perfect” as our Father in Heaven is perfect… by being “in Christ Jesus”.